Nine students from throughout the country presented their research as part of the 2007 Calder Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium at Flom Auditorium in the Walsh Family Library at the Rose Hill campus on Thursday, Aug. 16.

The all-day event featured a keynote address by Sarwan Dhir, Ph.D., program director of the Center for Biotechnology at Fort Valley State University. “You have worked really hard,” Dhir told the students. “This was just a seed for you—it’s up to you to grow now.”

The Calder Summer Undergraduate Research (CSUR) Program, which has been held at Fordham’s Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk since 1998, is a highly selective 12-week initiative that attracts students from across the country to conduct research under the mentorship of Fordham ecology faculty members. Participating students have access to study sites at the station and nearby ecosystems, such as the Hudson River, the Catskill Mountains and Black Rock Forest.

The students ranged from Texas A&M University in College Station, Tex., to Medger Evers College in Brooklyn. Funding for the program is provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates Site Program.

John Wehr, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the Calder Center, and James Lewis, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, direct the program. “As opposed to being told about science, they’re doing science,” Wehr said. “By the end of the summer, their hard work results in some excellent science. This was a very enthusiastic group of students.”

The students each delivered 20-minute presentations about their research on topics ranging from ectomycorrhizal fungi to negative geotaxis in rice and maize weevils.